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2003-03-20 [boo_radley] crosslinked, added perl doc site
2003-05-24 [Mr. Muskrat] s/Perl Monks/PerlMonks/ & changed to id link
2004-01-26 [jdporter] regularized
2006-03-15 [jdporter] retitled
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<h1>Where is Perl function <i>foo()</i> documented?</h1>
<p>
An excellent repository of Perl documentation exists at
[http://perldoc.perl.org/]. That's your one-stop shop.
<small>Also, [szabgab] has created this nice [http://www.szabgab.com/articles/perlindex.html|comprehensive perl index].</small>
</p>
<p>
Your local installation of Perl comes with a full set of documentation on the Perl language and the perl execution environment.
(This surprises a lot of people new to Perl.)
On UNIX and UNIX-like systems (such as Linux), it's all available via the <code>perldoc</code> command.
For example, <code>perldoc perlfunc</code> on UNIXy systems should give you the answer to the title question.
On other OSes, Perl provides the same documentation in various forms &mdash; for example, in HTML &mdash; and with only a little searching under perl's installation directory, you should be able to find everything you need for basic questions.
</p>
<p>
If you want to link to documentation for a function, either in a node or in the chatterbox, you can do it like this:
<b><tt>&#91;doc://<i>foo</i>]</tt></b>
where <i>foo</i> is the function name in question. For example, <c>[doc://time]</c> -> [doc://time]. (Note that this also works for built-in perl variables, e.g. <c>[doc://@ARGV]</c>)
</p><p>
If you want to jump <i>immediately</i> to such documentation in your browser, it's quite easy: simply type
<b><tt>doc://<i>foo</i></tt></b> (no square brackets) in the Search box at the top of any page.
</p>
<p>
(To do a general search of the documentation at perldoc.perl.org, type
<tt><b>perl</b>doc://</tt> rather than <tt>doc://</tt>.)
</p>
<p>
If you happen to be viewing a PerlMonks node which contains code (such as entries in the [id://1747] or [id://1967]), and you happen to have your [id://590090|Function Nodelet] enabled, that nodelet will contain links to the documentation for every function used in the code displayed on the node.
</p>
<h4>Old On-site Docs</h4>
<p>
If you don't mind looking at an older version of the Perl documentation, there are a couple of handy ways:
</p>
<p>
For browsing, you can visit our dusty old [id://148]. <!-- Library -->
This has an index of all the perl docs, including, for example, the Perl FAQ. </p>
<p>
If you want info on a specific function or topic, you can type its name in the Search box at the top of any page.
This will take you directly to the corresponding page in the [id://148].
</p>
<hr/><i>Back to the [PerlMonks FAQ]</i>